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Hidden Literacies HIDDEN LITERACIES: Ethnographic studies of literacy and numeracy practices in Pakistan Rafat Nabi Alan Rogers Brian Street Uppingham Press: Bury St Edmunds 2009 Published by: Uppingham Press Warren House, 68 Whiting Street Bury St Edmunds Suffolk IP33 1NR [email protected] Printed by: www.abramis.co.uk © Uppingham Press 2009 First published 2009 ISBN 978-0-9542114-2-4 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Rafat Nabi iii FOREWORD: Alan Rogers and Brian Street ix PART I: An Ethnographic Approach to Literacy and Numeracy: Alan Rogers and Brian Street 1 PART II: Case Studies: Rafat Nabi Introduction 23 Shazia, domestic servant 34 Rana, street beggar 46 Rozina the dyer 55 Amen Baba, vegetable and fruit seller 65 Zia the plumber 86 Shirin’s family 98 Sajid, bangle seller 110 PART III: Some Important Findings: Rafat Nabi, Alan Rogers and Brian Street 129 iii Dedication I dedicate this book to my father, mother and David Kahler, my guru. iv INTRODUCTION Rafat Nabi In 2007, I came to the University of East Anglia to work with Professor Alan Rogers and Professor Brian Street. The main purpose was to write a book on Adult Literacy from a practitioner’s point of view, in the light of my field experience. I have been in the field of Education and Adult Literacy for twenty years. I always felt some unease with the Adult Literacy Programmes that we were running and was intrigued to find out what the users felt about these programmes, and to solicit suggestions about how the participants thought that the programmes could be improved. I had already discussed my concerns with many people, on different formal and informal levels and with several so-called “experts” in this field. Why have attempts to improve Adult Literacy been considered unsuccessful, particularly in Pakistan and in general in South Asia? Are the traditional, rigid methods of teaching inappropriate? Is it a ‘one size fits all’ approach? Is it the approach or method of teaching that is wrong or is it something else, hidden from the eyes of policy makers and implementers? I thought that perhaps writing with a practitioner’s eyes and drawing policy makers’ attention to the evidence could encourage them to think and to make changes. I believed that in the absence of research- based studies, my efforts could play a role in changing attitudes and encouraging more creative solutions to the problem. I discussed my concerns and dissatisfaction about adult literacy efforts with the two professors who were equally keen to tease out the essential missing ingredients in the current approach. They drew my attention to and encouraged me to explore the hidden world of social literacies and numeracies. They wanted me to find out if these do exist, and see if they could offer light on the path of my discovery journey for the enhancement of adult literacy. I took their advice on board and in order to get a deeper understanding about social literacies and numeracies, I read numerous books, reports, and also attended a LETTER workshop series in Ethiopia. Not only this, I also made conscious efforts to attend and, when invited, to give presentations at as many seminars as my time permitted. I also attended many Literacy and Development meetings. All these efforts gave me a deeper understanding about social literacies and numeracies, and consequently I felt more and more committed to explore this world. v The understanding I gained from the literature and by attending workshops and seminars resonated with me, as I recalled many occasions when I had met people who called themselves ‘illiterate’, yet in my presence they had written receipts, filled in forms, written letters, sent text messages, taken phone messages, and read charts and newspapers. At the time, it had not occurred to me to question why they had labelled themselves as ‘illiterates’ when they could so convincingly demonstrate that they had acquired some literacy skills. I decided to explore this dark world of the so-called ‘illiterates’ world of literacy’ using ethnographic approaches. Fortunately, on this discovery journey, Brian Street and Alan Rogers were holding my hand. I quickly found out that these kinds of ‘illiterates’ are all around me, they are performing a wide variety of tasks, involving many kinds of literacy practice, but their learning efforts were largely hidden. I had chosen unintentionally not to appreciate their engagement in literacy events and practices. Perhaps they regard me as a member of the group who destroy their feelings, emotions and self-respect by labelling them as ‘illiterate’ and who reinforce their belief in this fallacy. When I started my field research using ethnographic approaches, a whole taboo was broken. People functioning well in society using literacy practices on-the-job, at home, in religious places, in trades and in the community had nevertheless been labelled ‘illiterate’ and had come to believe this themselves. They had made themselves functionally literate by learning from people and from the environment, without attending any formal literacy programmes. Indeed, some had tried the latter with rather negative outcomes. What I discovered in their experiences of learning, theories of learning and patterns of learning are lamplighters for all who are involved in conceiving, developing and implementing literacy programmes. This book is an effort to reveal this hidden social literacy world, to learn from them and make an effort to pass on their insights to policy makers, implementers, donors and everyone in the field of the promotion of adult literacy. There are lessons to be learned from these motivated, often self-styled ‘illiterates’ and if applied, perhaps future literacy efforts may have the opportunity to achieve higher success rates than those at present. vi Acknowledgements I would never have been able to start my journey to discover this hidden world without the support of World Education, Boston, USA to fulfil one of my dreams, which is in your hands. I would also like to thank the Centre for Applied Research in Education (CARE) in the University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK for accepting me as a visiting fellow and providing me not only with all the necessary administrative and educational support but also with a platform for intellectual grooming. True thanks to Libby and Dawn for all their help. My acknowledgements would not be complete if I do not give thanks to all the people who wholeheartedly and openly shared their experiences with me and started a fire in my thoughts and beliefs. They were movers-and-shakers and brought a revolutionary change to my perspective of the world of literacy and illiteracy. Special thanks to all those friends who made my stay comfortable in the UK. For David Kahler, vice president of World Education, I feel the limitations in my vocabulary to pay true tribute to my guru and mentor who was with me in every difficult moment throughout my literacy career and backed every innovative strategy which I had developed and implemented. Thank you, David, for holding a lamp for me on the dark road of my journey for the promotion of adult literacy. vii viii FOREWORD Alan Rogers and Brian V Street Among the many contributions which this book makes to contemporary debates about the nature of literacy and numeracy and the best ways to promote them, it seems to us that three stand out. First, through a series of seven case studies, Dr Nabi shows conclusively that there are a significant number of persons who are labelled ‘illiterate’ and indeed who call themselves ‘illiterate’ but who (sometimes unconsciously) use some forms of literacy and numeracy in their daily lives. An illiterate domestic servant ‘reads’ when preparing breakfast and ‘writes’ when taking a message over the telephone or making a note about laundry given to the cleaner. An illiterate street beggar keeps a record of the money she acquires and the loans she makes. Shop keepers and self- employed workers have their own informal literacy and numeracy practices. To these people, what they are doing does not count as ‘literacy’; only the kind of literacy which is taught in schools or in adult literacy learning programmes is ‘real literacy’ – and they have not been to school or adult literacy class. So they still think of themselves as ‘illiterate’. The findings here show that the distinction between ‘literate’ and ‘illiterate’ is uncertain – with all that this implies for the statistics on which adult education policies are built. Secondly, some of the case studies reveal how some people come to learn literacy and numeracy skills. Drawing on the assistance of friends and neighbours, collecting their own learning ‘materials’, a plumber set himself ten steps, a vegetable seller drew up a plan of six stages. Their approach was largely ‘whole word recognition’ rather than phonics. This has much to tell us about the need for different ways of helping adults to learn literacy and numeracy. And thirdly, the book sets out clearly the reasons for using the ethnographic research approaches of Dr Nabi and the methodologies she employed. It is a useful guide to others who wish to find out the ‘hidden literacies’ in their own context, and how to draw lessons from what they find. We do not claim that those who explore the everyday literacy and numeracy practices in their own context will find the same as Dr Nabi found; but we are certain that they will find out much which will teach them how people engage with and learn about literacy and numeracy and ix what they feel about literacy and numeracy, and these findings can form a foundation on which to build new and more effective adult learning programmes.
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